The hearing of Scripture makes up for what cannot be seen in gathered worship. The word of God as recorded in Scripture becomes the presence of God as the text is read and the Spirit carries it to the heart and mind of the listener.
Even better, when the listener is engaged in speaking the text of Scripture there is a breathing out of God’s word. The voice of God is made known to the collective gathering as those collecting gather to hear the voice of God in the collected community. In a real sense the Christian community is born anew in such moments. Thus, Scripture for the body of Christ gathered in worship is essential. God is made present through the reading of God’s word by the children of God.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Interlaced Worship is Essential
The gathered worship of the Church that is practiced in a disconnected fashion from worship that is lived out in a daily lifestyle practice makes the gathered worship experience little more a religious ceremony.
Recently, while in Jordan as part of a trip to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have argued that “when the mix of beliefs and lifestyles goes down, orthodoxy rises as does uniformity of the cultural landscape in a region where tolerance is not an outstanding virtue” (Ethan Bronner reporting in the New York Times, May 13, 2009, “Christians in Mideast Losing Numbers and Influence”).
The importance of an interconnection between gathered worship and daily practice is a central tenet of Christian worship. How one actually interlaces the worship practices of the gathered worship of the Church with a daily life of faith-filled living is central to connecting belief and practice. Simply put, the gathered worship of the Church uses various rituals in Christian worship. These elements of worship have significant, relevant ties to daily life as Christians gather, sing, pray, give, preach, receive, and share good words in their daily journeys among believers and non-believers outside of the gathered community.
The importance of such an interlaced lifestyle is critical, for everyone but especially for those who live in the troubled areas of the Mideast. Christian worship practices which ignore the real world miss the heart of worship, which is loving God with all of one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength, and neighbors as one loves oneself.
The common practice of many Christian communities is to be a shield from the world. This tends to divorce worship from daily life in an almost monastic-like attempt to practice a purity of worship. Such worship minimizes the definition of worship.
Worhsip is best understood as a flow of love. It begins with God. God first loved us. This graceful act of God toward us allows us to respond in kind. This love of God toward us is meant to be lived out by us in our daily lives rather than hoarded. We are to care for those around just like we were first cared for by God, care extended to us even while we were yet enemies of God. As we love those around us, God receives this love as care given to "the least of these." This love flow completes its journey from God to us through others and back to God.
Our acts of worship offered directly to God in the gathered celebrations of the Church are measured by our acts of love in our daily lives. In this way, God becomes part of all of our worship, first gracefully calling us to worship, then gracefully enabling our worship, and finally gracefully receiving our worship.
Apart from the daily worship practice of the Church, practices performed as the Body of Christ scatters into the world, it is questionable whether gathered worship would be recognized by God as anything more than empty ceremonies. The interlacing of these two, gathered and scattered worship, is essential to Christian worship that is more than just form or style.
Recently, while in Jordan as part of a trip to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have argued that “when the mix of beliefs and lifestyles goes down, orthodoxy rises as does uniformity of the cultural landscape in a region where tolerance is not an outstanding virtue” (Ethan Bronner reporting in the New York Times, May 13, 2009, “Christians in Mideast Losing Numbers and Influence”).
The importance of an interconnection between gathered worship and daily practice is a central tenet of Christian worship. How one actually interlaces the worship practices of the gathered worship of the Church with a daily life of faith-filled living is central to connecting belief and practice. Simply put, the gathered worship of the Church uses various rituals in Christian worship. These elements of worship have significant, relevant ties to daily life as Christians gather, sing, pray, give, preach, receive, and share good words in their daily journeys among believers and non-believers outside of the gathered community.
The importance of such an interlaced lifestyle is critical, for everyone but especially for those who live in the troubled areas of the Mideast. Christian worship practices which ignore the real world miss the heart of worship, which is loving God with all of one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength, and neighbors as one loves oneself.
The common practice of many Christian communities is to be a shield from the world. This tends to divorce worship from daily life in an almost monastic-like attempt to practice a purity of worship. Such worship minimizes the definition of worship.
Worhsip is best understood as a flow of love. It begins with God. God first loved us. This graceful act of God toward us allows us to respond in kind. This love of God toward us is meant to be lived out by us in our daily lives rather than hoarded. We are to care for those around just like we were first cared for by God, care extended to us even while we were yet enemies of God. As we love those around us, God receives this love as care given to "the least of these." This love flow completes its journey from God to us through others and back to God.
Our acts of worship offered directly to God in the gathered celebrations of the Church are measured by our acts of love in our daily lives. In this way, God becomes part of all of our worship, first gracefully calling us to worship, then gracefully enabling our worship, and finally gracefully receiving our worship.
Apart from the daily worship practice of the Church, practices performed as the Body of Christ scatters into the world, it is questionable whether gathered worship would be recognized by God as anything more than empty ceremonies. The interlacing of these two, gathered and scattered worship, is essential to Christian worship that is more than just form or style.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Living Generously
Eugene Peterson’s The Message captures the essence of what it means to live generously in his paraphrase of Jesus’ words in the fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel.
43 "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' 44 I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, 45 for the you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. 46 If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. 47 If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. 48 "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you. Matt 5:43-48 (MSG)
According to this text, living generously is living responsively. We live in a way that we have experienced life. It is hard for us to do otherwise. That is it is hard for us to be generous when we have not been taught generosity.
Being taught generosity does not necessarily mean that someone has been generous to us. Rather, it might be just as true that we have never been on the receiving end of someone’s generosity. Reflectively, we decide to “not be like them.” It’s almost as if our generosity grows out of dislike for the way someone has behaved toward us. How common is this?
It is more likely that we became generous when we realized how another has been generous toward us, especially God. At some point we become aware that everything we have, our life, even our very breath, is a gift. This outward look is part of our maturing, part of what teaches us that we are not the center of the world, only part of it.
Living generously begins when we begin to respond to the generosity we have experienced. Such an experience is a maturing one. We are growing up when we begin to live generously rather than protectively. A kindergartner’s concept of sharing is “You have it. I want it. Let’s share.” Such behavior is distressing when it is seen in adults. We teach kindergartners the value of sharing. It takes time for them to learn it. At some point— we hope –they get it. Even more importantly, we hope they practice it.
Worship in the real world is dependent on believers living generously, not only in an economic sense. In fact, it almost is a fault of many Christians that they are more ready to give help by giving money than they are to go help by giving themselves. Sometimes the former is the best way to help. However, not always. Churches which allow Christians to only develop as financial supporters and not also as hands-on servers miss the heart of the Gospel.
Living generously is living toward the other. We do not live generously so that we will feel better about ourselves. Christians live this way because one cannot be Christian and live otherwise. Worship finds its outflow in service. The gathered service is meant in every way to be preparation for scattered service. Scattered service without gathered service sacrifices its root. The gathered body of Christ is where Christians plant themselves so that they can extend out as a living limb of the body.
43 "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' 44 I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, 45 for the you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. 46 If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. 47 If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. 48 "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you. Matt 5:43-48 (MSG)
According to this text, living generously is living responsively. We live in a way that we have experienced life. It is hard for us to do otherwise. That is it is hard for us to be generous when we have not been taught generosity.
Being taught generosity does not necessarily mean that someone has been generous to us. Rather, it might be just as true that we have never been on the receiving end of someone’s generosity. Reflectively, we decide to “not be like them.” It’s almost as if our generosity grows out of dislike for the way someone has behaved toward us. How common is this?
It is more likely that we became generous when we realized how another has been generous toward us, especially God. At some point we become aware that everything we have, our life, even our very breath, is a gift. This outward look is part of our maturing, part of what teaches us that we are not the center of the world, only part of it.
Living generously begins when we begin to respond to the generosity we have experienced. Such an experience is a maturing one. We are growing up when we begin to live generously rather than protectively. A kindergartner’s concept of sharing is “You have it. I want it. Let’s share.” Such behavior is distressing when it is seen in adults. We teach kindergartners the value of sharing. It takes time for them to learn it. At some point— we hope –they get it. Even more importantly, we hope they practice it.
Worship in the real world is dependent on believers living generously, not only in an economic sense. In fact, it almost is a fault of many Christians that they are more ready to give help by giving money than they are to go help by giving themselves. Sometimes the former is the best way to help. However, not always. Churches which allow Christians to only develop as financial supporters and not also as hands-on servers miss the heart of the Gospel.
Living generously is living toward the other. We do not live generously so that we will feel better about ourselves. Christians live this way because one cannot be Christian and live otherwise. Worship finds its outflow in service. The gathered service is meant in every way to be preparation for scattered service. Scattered service without gathered service sacrifices its root. The gathered body of Christ is where Christians plant themselves so that they can extend out as a living limb of the body.
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